Lukashenka again denies plans for rubel devaluation

Alyaksandr Lukashenka reiterated on Friday that the rubel would not be devalued against the world's key currencies.

"We have no need to devalue the national currency," he told reporters after inspecting the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves inside the vault of the National Bank of Belarus.

Mr. Lukashenka claimed that confidence in the rubel had been restored after households' surging demand for foreign cash had been satisfied in full recently. "As soon as people saw that we are able to satisfy demand, this tide started ebbing away," he said, adding that last week's oil trade deal with Russia had contributed to the strengthening of public confidence in the rubel.

"What I saw in the vault is evidence that we have sufficient gold and foreign exchange reserves to satisfy any demand for foreign cash. We must live quietly, look to the future, we have fairly good prospects," Mr. Lukashenka said.

He promised that monthly utility bills would not be rising by more than five percent annually.

"We have raised wages by 30 percent, our economy is coping with it. We have given [people] money ahead of the New Year, people will go shopping, buy something for themselves and their children, spend this money on Belarusian goods, which will spur the development of the economy. This is the wisdom of this decision," he said.